Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson stated his opinion at Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, that the FBI had intended to use the young man they questioned, known as Siggi ‘the hacker,’ as bait in their investigation of WikiLeaks.

The affair was discussed at parliament this morning where opposition MP Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir harshly criticized the minister for having compromised the prosecution’s freedom, ruv.is reports.

Another opposition MP, Siv Friðleifsdóttir, revealed that during meetings with parliamentary committees this week, State Prosecutor Sigríður Friðjónsdóttir stated she had been very surprised when Ögmundur decided to order the FBI agents to leave the country in August 2011.

Sigríður had found his actions bizarre, Siv added, as in her view, both the first and second visit of the FBI in summer 2011 had to do with closely-connected cases.

However, Ögmundur maintains that the FBI had only requested permission before they arrived the first time and that while the initial investigation had to do with an imminent attack on the Government Office’s computer system, the second had to do with WikiLeaks and that these two cases were unconnected.

The minister concluded that according to his evaluation, the FBI intended to use Siggi ‘the hacker’ as bait to approach WikiLeaks.

Opposition MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir, who has worked for WikiLeaks, harshly criticized Icelandic police authorities for the actions in the affair, accusing them of having blindly believed the stories of two hackers, Siggi, and another one called Sabu.

The Icelandic police opened the possibility for the FBI to come to Iceland under false pretense, Birgitta claimed.

Click here to read more about the FBI-WikiLeaks affair.

ESA